


At the End of Time

by CrystalHeartZyx



Series: ON HOLD STORIES [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Genre: Characters and info from Fragments Before/Fragments After, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 08:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19247269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalHeartZyx/pseuds/CrystalHeartZyx
Summary: Rei comes to the final human civilization, the Village of Paddra, with her father. She trains to become the next Guardian of the seeress Yeul, but after she sees a vision which comes to pass, she's surprised to find she can see the future like the seeress. But after she sees a vision of her friends meeting terrible fates, she works furiously to keep them alive in the dying world.





	1. Rei Fang of the Village of Paddra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still editing, woo-hoo, but I started playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 and then this suddenly popped into my head. As most stories do.
> 
> I've never read Fragments Before or Fragments After, so if my take on the characters conflicts with what is in the books, I apologize. What I'm basing most of my logic and versions of the characters on is mostly just from the glorious summaries of Wikipedia. If anyone has read them, then give me some tips, advice, and facts that I might be able to use.
> 
> If these five/six-year-olds are talking more sophisticated than they should be, I'm sorry. I don't know a lot of children, especially of this age, I don't exactly remember how great my speech was when I was their age, and I don't know how much knowledge (or lack thereof) they have on vocabulary. And hey, this is 700AF. You never know. I mean, kids had to grow up fast if they wanted to survive the harsh world. That's my logic, anyway. I mean, I considered myself a smart and imaginative six-year-old, but hey, that's just me. My opinion of myself may or may not be biased and/or a distorted version of what it really was.
> 
> Enjoy! :)

It all started on the first day I came to the village of Paddra.

My family - my dad, really, as my mother and sister had already died from a monster attack on our village - had to flee after the attack and ended up in one of the only places left other than our village. Actually, it  _was_ the only place left. Now, before me, were the last humans in existence.

Well, at the  _moment_ , it was actually just the last  _children_  in existence.

"I'm Rei," I introduced. "Rei Fang!"

"Noel. Noel Kreiss. This is Yanny, his cousin Rigo, and Natarle. Welcome to Paddra."

"Thanks. So, are you, like, the only kids around here?"

"There is  _one_  more," Yanny admitted.

"Yeul, the seeress," Natarle revealed.

"Ooo! I've heard of her! This is where she lives?!"

"But she lives away from the rest of us," Noel said. "My grandmother says it's so that people won't be able to use her powers for evil. And some other stuff, but I really only understood the first thing. This guy Caius is always with her too. My grandmother says he's her Guardian. He just showed up one day. I, for one, don't like him."

"So can we meet her, or is it like, forbidden?"

"Caius allows her to live a normal life, "Noel admitted. "She's just doing some seeress stuff right now. She's the youngest of us, three years younger than me."

"How old are you?"

"Five."

"Ha! I'm six!"

As it turns out, we discussed our actual dates of birth, and Noel was the only one I was older than. Him, and Yeul, of course.

"Well, welcome to the group," Natarle said. "It's good to have another woman in the mix of all these boys."

The three of them made numerous sounds of protest, but Natarle shooed them to be quiet. Liking her already. She reminded me of my older sister.

"With Yeul, now the girls and boys are even," She declared. "We'll show you around the village. There aren't a lot of us, but we get by. You're staying with my family, right? We'll make you feel at home as possible."

* * *

"Hey, Yeul," Noel said, an affectionate smile on his face.

Yeul was a small three-year-old girl, the only person in the village younger than Noel, with silver hair and green eyes. She was clearly wise for her young age, being a cool and powerful seeress and all, but she also looked like just another ordinary little girl. At least, ordinary for the times. Every person in this dying world had an inherent hardness that came naturally.

Noel seemed to treat Yeul like a little sister, and having family in this world meant a lot, as most people were dying from sickness or the frequent monster attacks. It was understandable why he'd be so protective of her, and the others seemed to like to play with her as well.

"I'm Rei," I said cheerfully.

Yeul stared at me for a moment before smiling and saying, "Hi."

I take that as a good sign. I mean, she  _can_  see the future, right? If she likes me, it means we're gonna be friends, right? And that I'm gonna have a good future? Was that how it worked?

I wonder how often she sees visions. Is everything she says important? But listing to her every word would just be tiring. Wait, she shouldn't say stuff about her visions, right? Because of all the bad things that could happen if people know what's gonna come?

I'm not a seeress, so I guess I wouldn't know all the rules.

Really, Yeul looked and acted like any kid would in these times: not exactly carefree, but still happy and always smiling. She was serious when she needed to be, but we loved playing around with her, running around the village and pretending we were traveling the world, and what it would be like where there were more people.

We sometimes went further away from the village, where the Farseer's Relic could be seen standing tall in the distance.

"I'm gonna be strong when I get older," Yanny declared to me, Natarle and Rigo. "I'll protect the village from anything!"

"Yeah, well I bet I'll be stronger than you!" I challenged. "My sister used to say I was the strongest person she knew, and I'll grow up to fight really big monsters!"

"No way! I'll be the strongest there is!"

"Wanna bet?!"

"Yeah! I'm older than you, and I'm a boy!"

"That's not fair! A girl can be just as strong as a guy!"

"Come on, ladies, you're both powerful," Natarle began. "Let's just say you're  _both_  gonna be the best."

"That's impossible." "There can be only one!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Yanny protested, realizing she'd just called him a girl.

Everyone laughed at his embarrassment, as he quickly tried to recover.

"I'll show you all! I'll be amazing!"

"Bring it on, Yanny!" I challenged.

And so began the years of rivalry between us as to who would end up the strongest.

Of course, we were still kids back then, and though hunting and survival skills were a necessity in these times, we were still too young to be given any real weapons.

Still, Yanny and I would always be lashing out at each other verbally, though neither of us dared to throw a punch, as we were still friends, after all.

Noel, Rigo and Natarle always tried to put a positive spin on things, claiming that we'd  _all_  be great fighters, to protect the village and Yeul.

Overall, things were going well in my first year at Paddra.

* * *

Noel, Yeul, Yanny and I were playing in the outskirts of the village.

We liked to talk about trivial things, keeping the mood upbeat. We laughed, ran around, talking about the sky, and imagining what and where we'd be later in life. There wasn't much to do or entertain ourselves with, and even our dreams were limited, but we tried our best to keep entertained.

I suppose we walked too far from the village, and our noise caught the attention of the local monsters.

I had seen Cie'th before, not that I'm proud of it. I believed I would one day be strong, and that I was brave, but I had no weapons with me, and no skill. None of us did, despite mine and Yanny's big talk. Maybe, in the future, the beast would've been nothing, but right now, we were still children.

It seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. It loomed over us, and might as well have been as tall as an Adamantoise. It was one of the bigger Cie'th, not tiny bat-like, or those ones that just seemed to be a head and a hand. It wasn't human-sized, either. It's blue crystal skin looked hard as armor, and I had no doubt that punching and kicking wasn't going to be very effective, especially with our small strength.

"Run!"

We did so. We had been caught by surprise, but we were still a good enough distance away from the large Cie'th that we could get a head start. This type of Cie'th might have been powerful, yet it was also relatively slow, especially compared to us kids.

But the creature let out a screeching wail, as though crying out at it's eternal misery, and head was wracked with pain. I couldn't move. I could barely think straight. All I knew was the pounding in my head, and the ringing echo of the scream.

"Rei!" Someone shouted. I think it was Noel, but it was hard to tell in my current condition.

" _Come on, get up!_ " I shouted to my limbs. " _Run!_ "

I stumbled forward, though I wasn't coordinated enough to get to my feet. Every movement made my brain feel like it was turning to liquid and sloshing around in my skull. No matter how hard I pushed my arms and legs to get a move on, they didn't seem to fully understand and weren't able to properly take my commands.

Someone grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. It was Yanny.

"You're not dying on me now, Fang!" He said. "I'm gonna grow up and be the strongest fighter out there, but who else is gonna be there as the second best?"

Under normal circumstances, I probably would've knocked up upside the head, but right now, I just focused on his words and leaned against him as he lead me away as quickly as we could move.

Noel was pulling little Yeul to safety a short ways ahead of us. He was taller than her, and faster, but not strong enough that he could pick her up and carry her, so they were severely limited in their progress. So much so that Yanny and I actually managed to catch up even though my head was killing me and Yanny was basically carrying my dead weight.

"Hurry!"

The Cie'th may have been slow, but it suddenly it seemed to speed up after us, walking with its normal limp, but much faster, as though someone had cast a Haste spell. Now that it was chasing us, it had a clear intention, and that seemingly encouraged it to come after us at high speeds.

"Yanny, you need to leave me," I muttered.

"Not a chance, Fang! Don't go being all heroic now. It's just a Cie'th. Come on, we can make it."

But I was slowing Yanny significantly, considering I could barely  _stand_  on my own two feet, let alone move forward. Yanny was hauling my whole weight, and though he was strong and I was light, he wasn't exactly the warrior he boasted about yet.

Yeul and Noel were running faster than us, and though it wasn't noticeable at first, the distance between our two groups began to show, and we were still a good distance from the village. We could see it maybe 100 meters away, but at the rate Yanny and I were moving, we'd be caught in not half that distance.

"Come on, come on, come on…" Yanny muttered.

"Yanny-"

"Quiet! I'm trying to concentrate."

There was a small, light blue glow and suddenly my head cleared and I felt rejuvenated, as though I'd just taken a long nap and was sparking with energy again.

Yanny knew healing magic? Since when?! No fair! I'd been working on using magic for ages now! Ever since I can remember! I can barely muster enough energy to create a small Ruin spell!

And then Yanny collapsed from exhaustion.

Well, that explained things.

I'd hazard a guess that Yanny had never actually done magic before now. Though my Ruin spells weren't exactly combat worthy, and they usually drained me significantly, but  _technically_  I still learned magic before him. I feel accomplished.

"Yanny, come on! Don't  _you_  start being all heroic now! You are  _not_  giving me a lecture about it and then doing it yourself two seconds later."

I had to take over pulling Yanny instead of the other way around, and we didn't exactly speed up because of it.

"Come on, you guys!" Noel shouted. He took Yanny's other arm and helped hauled us forward.

Still, with our increased speed, we weren't gonna make it. To make things worse, now that Noel was with us, Yeul was lagging behind with our group as well, slowing her down to our slow pace despite her potential to go much faster if she wanted to.

Then, Yanny fell because we were trying to move far faster than he could keep up with, bringing both Noel and I down with him and causing Yeul to stop with us as well. Next thing you know, the Cie'th was upon us.

"No!"

There was a large rumble, and a loud cry of pain from the Cie'th. The three of us turned to find Yeul had been standing in front of us with her arms out, but that guy who was her Guardian, Caius was attacking the Cie'th with his hefty sword. He struck surprisingly fast for such a large weapon, driving the monster back with ease. It didn't stand a chance.

There were a few moments of shock and confusion once the attack was over as we all tried to catch our breaths, calm our nerves, and realize what had just happened.

"You…you saved us?" I asked.

"I protected Yeul," He corrected. "As the Guardian of the seeress, it is my job to keep her safe under any circumstances."

"Well, still. You saved us, even if by accident."

"That was awesome," Yanny declared.

"Totally," I agreed, giving him a fist bump.

"Yeah, nearly dying is  _so_  cool," Noel muttered. "But still, you're…not bad, Caius."

"Come, Yeul. Let us get back to the village."

Yeul nodded, waving for us to follow.

* * *

So after that day, Yanny and I went to train under Caius. Though first opposed to it - still untrusting of Caius - Yanny, Natarle, Rigo and I finally got Noel to join us. Yanny and I must've rubbed off on Noel, as after that day, Noel seemed inspired to become strong like Caius. Plus, he was also driven by the prospect of becoming a new Guardian for Yeul, as he was very protective of her already, and wanted to be strong enough to defend her for real.

Natarle, being the nice person she was, declined the offer of joining us as well, saying having three pupils might have been more than enough for Caius to deal with - especially the three of us (I have no idea what she meant by that. I mean, we're totally mature and not impulsive at all). Rigo, on the other hand, said he could become stronger all on his own, and without training.

And that's how Yanny, Noel and I began our training under Caius to become strong.

So yeah, I'd say my first year in Paddra was going well.


	2. Calm Before the Storm

"And the daughters of the goddess Etro transformed into a great crystal pillar to hold up the planet Cocoon into the sky. Though it lasted many centuries, two hundred years ago, the pillar weakened, and eventually, as the people panicked over what to do, they began to war amongst each other. In the end, all the wars ever did was weaken the pillar further, and it was brought down to the land below. It's crystal sand defiled the land, air, and water, causing many creatures and people to die. Humanity has survived until now, becoming who we are, the final human survivors of the world."

"But there are more people out there, right?" Noel asked optimistically to his grandmother.

"Who knows? Villages are few and far between. It would take much traveling to find the nearest village."

"What was it like?" I asked. "Before the fall of the planet?"

"They say that green plants grew everywhere, and people could grow crops in their villages, the ground covered in fertile land and not the crystal sand we have here today. There were tons of people, many more than in this village, living in big and prosperous cities. There were buildings reaching up to the skies, the sun always shining each day."

We listened to Noel's grandmother day after day, hearing all she had to tell us about. Noel lived with only his grandmother now (as in his mother and father had died), and my dad and I were staying with them, since Noel's grandmother was really nice when she volunteered to take us in.

Yeul stayed with us as well, since Caius allowed her to stay with us as the population of the village shrunk, and Yeul declared Noel's family were trustworthy. We even made an official(ish) declaration that we wouldn't ever prod or use her seeress-y stuff for bad things.

"All right, kids," My dad said. "I thinks that's enough for today. You're grandmother needs her rest, after all, Noel. I think Yanny's coming over soon for your training with Caius. Natarle, you should be heading over to Araea ( **Pronounced Are-eye-uh** ) for your archery and weaving lessons. Rigo, James should be expecting you at the forge, no?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're going Papa," I muttered.

We scattered to our respective locations.

Yanny, Noel and I had made a lot of progress over the years in our training. We had long since been upgraded to real swords. I chose two swords, one gold and one silver, about three feet long each, double edged, and a purple ribbon tied around each of the hilts to make sure they were labeled as mine. I could put the two swords together to make then a double-bladed lance, which was pretty useful in quick and rapid attacks. Yanny had more of a katana-like weapon - longer, sleeker, and pretty hard hitting as well as piercing, if a bit slower and harder to swing.

Yanny and I were still competitive, incidentally favoring pretty different weapon styles without even meaning to (we chose to take it as a sign that we were destined to forever be enemies), while Noel seemed to have some kind of conflict with Caius. It was really an on-and-off kind of thing.

With Yanny and I trying to defeat  _each other_  most of the time, Noel was the most determined to defeat  _Caius_  when he became strong enough. Caius had one of the big and bulky swords, which he swung with ease (easier than Yanny swung  _his_  sword, even though his blade was much thinner and should've been lighter, might I add), and as Noel couldn't beat him at his own game, he went with two swords like me, but one of his swords was larger and fancier, while his second sword was downgraded slightly and put into a sheath on his main sword.

Apparently, Caius himself said that Noel was the most likely to surpass him, but Yanny and I weren't so much interested in defeating Caius as we were each other. He said there could only be one Guardian in the end, and once we were all strong enough, we would all fight (though not to the death) to see who would fight Caius (this time, yes, to the death).

We were fully willing to let Noel take the role of the Guardian, but though he  _was_  determined to  _defeat_ Caius, he wasn't very keen on actually  _killing_  him. It was a running argument between the two, though nothing was really done about it, as in, Noel didn't give up trying to become stronger, and Caius never gave a confirmation that there was another way for Noel to gain the power of the Guardian without killing his superior and friend.

And so we grew stronger. Natarle was pretty amazing with her bow, and did use a dagger for close combat as well. Not to mention she could weave like a goddess, and made some awesome tapestries of the things that Noel's grandmother explained for presents, and some cool images of the rest of us, like a family portrait, or some depictions of us fighting each other or ourselves.

Rigo loved to forge all kinds of weapons, learning from the forge, James, going out to the mountains to find the minerals needed. He preferred to fight with his fists and feet, but he did like to use a mace if he had to use some weapon.

Overall, we were becoming a great team when it came to fighting, and so we were trusted to go outside the village more often, and further out for both hunting and just hanging out.

* * *

"Hey, check it out!" Rigo called.

He pointed into the distance, where a large monument could barely be seen in the distance, as the land was pretty dark and it was far out.

"That's the Farseer's Relic that your grandma mentioned, Noel!"

We had never been so far out from the main village before, and had never actually been to the monument to see it. Apparently, Yeul went there occasionally and used this thing called an Oracle Drive to record the visions she has of the future.

"Let's go check it out!"

"But Rigo!" Natarle scolded. "Only the seeress and her Guardian are supposed to be allowed over there with the Oracle Drive! Remember the whole "knowing the future can cause dangerous stuff?!"

"Well Rei, Yanny, and Noel are all her Guardian's  _subordinates_ , so that means we're all good!"

"But…! Does it work like that?"

"If it does, I'd assume that  _our job_  is to prevent him from touching the Oracle Drive," I said.

"Rigo!" Noel called as we hurried after him.

We ran on the long trek to the monument. As we got closer, we saw the monument was three identical women, one standing a little higher than the other (you know, like a family photo or something). Apparently, they were supposed to be Yeul, though they looked a lot older than the pre-teen that we knew and loved. In front of the monument was the Oracle Drive in all its glory.

"Whoa, cool!" Rigo exclaimed.

"Rigo, be careful with that!" Natarle chided.

"I'm not gonna break it," He argued.

"Knowing you, of course you will. You can break things with just a look."

"Oh, I'm offended!" He said dramatically, before grabbing her arm. "How could you be so harsh?! I thought you loved me!"

She shoved him away while rolling her eyes, but a smirk fought it's way across her face, which she tried to hide with a scowl.

"Whatever. Just be careful Rigo, seriously. Even if  _we_  don't get in trouble, Rei, Yanny and Noel  _could_  for letting you come over here and not stopping you."

"How do you think you activate this thing?" Rigo asked, completely ignoring her.

"Rigo!"

"I think you just, like hold you hand over it and will it to activate?" Yanny offered.

"Yanny!" I protested.

"What? A little curiosity didn't hurt anyone!"

"Curiosity killed the cactuar! What if we see something we shouldn't?! O-Or we see something bad and then know it  _has_  to be true no matter what! Prophecies are like that, you know? They're really hard to change, and the whole point is that the seeress has to make sure her visions come to pass! She can't use her ability to alter time and fate or risk creating a  _worse_  fate for thousands of others!"

"You're thinking too much, Rei," He assured me. "Besides, prophecies are vague, right? No matter what we see, we can interpret it however we want, and we can just ignore what we see and let whatever happens happen. Come on, aren't you just a  _little_  curious about the prophecies and how the Oracle Drive works?"

Before he could give me the chance to answer, he put his hand to the device and it pulsed with energy as it activated. Just above it, an image appeared. Inside, we saw Yeul in some other village, where it was significantly brighter, picking a white flower. From the momentary image, I noticed that the village was buried in the same crystal dust that we had now, and that it didn't exactly look much better than our own village in terms of the quality of the buildings and architecture.

The scene then flipped to Caius fighting a Behemoth, and considering we'd seen demonstrations of his powers before, it wasn't really new. He slashed rapidly with his large sword, even causing the large beast to flinch back under the assault. Then, it held his ground and began to glow with an aura of power, its muscles bulging and shifting before it stood on its hind legs and ripped the sword from the back of its head off with a roar and a surge of energy.

"Ouch," I muttered. "How  _do_  those things have swords there?"

"Evolution, my friend," Yanny said.

The monster now had the ability to slash back at Caius with it's own weapon, and having increased mobility. It slashed horizontally, and then brought its weapon down right upon Caius. The Guardian blocked the attack though, throwing the attacking blade away. Caius quickly gained the upper hand, stabbing his sword into the ground to send out a Blast Wave, and while the monster was distracted, he concentrated and then held out the Eye of Bahamut on his sword to release a bunch of little black spirits that debilitated the monster significantly. After that, Caius just wailed on the thing until it was dead.

The Oracle Drive's image blackened before it powered down.

"Well, guess you guys were worried for nothing," Rigo said. "That was hardly interesting."

"If you'd paid attention, you might realize there were tons of things in that vision that we could bring to question," Noel pointed out.

"Didn't you say paying attention to too many things in here could be a  _bad_  thing?"

"There  _are_  some things to the careful observer," Natarle said. "But best we take Rigo's point of view here and ignore them. We don't want to figure things out that we aren't supposed to, after all."

"I don't know about you guys, but that was boring," Yanny said. "I'm up for a little hunt. Anyone wanna join?"

"I'm game," Noel agreed.

"Whoo! Let's go kill some stuff!" Rigo whooped before hurrying off with Yanny back into the more monster-infested areas behind the village. Noel hurried to follow them, probably to make sure the two didn't go and take on an Adamantoise or something, while Natarle and I hung back and followed at a walk.

"Those two are the very definitions of impulsive and overconfident," I muttered. "I swear, they're gonna get themselves killed at this rate."

"Oh yeah, but no one's allowed to kill Yanny but you, right?"

"Correct."

"Well at least you're both not  _completely_  out for each other's blood. Try and keep it that way, will you?"

"Oh, we're not gonna kill each other. At least, not any time soon."

"I'm serious. My uncle went out on a hunt two days ago and didn't come back. Our numbers are dwindling, Rei. And all the women left in the village aren't able to have any children - at least, most are too afraid to since it basically guarantees their death. Noel's mom died in childbirth, Yeul's mother did, and mine. I live with my dad, my big brother, and my aunt, but my aunt's gotten sick, and you know there's little we can do to help her."

"I…I'm sorry, Nat."

"It's fine. But the point is, you and I need to band together to keep those two idiots from getting themselves hurt and killed. We're practically the only sane ones of the group - besides Yeul, of course - and even Noel is getting reckless, going and fighting tougher enemies in order to prove he's strong to Caius, and then barely surviving, only to brag about it as if it were nothing and then being sent to fight worse."

"We can do it together, right?"

"I worry about Rigo, really. He's definitely the worst. Look at how he activated the Oracle Drive without a care in the world. His hubris is gonna get the best of him one day."

"Worry about him a lot?"

"Obviously. I'm the only one left to look after him when you, Yanny, and Noel are all at your lessons with Caius."

"Well, I just think it sounds like you two are close."

She scoffed, suddenly going defensive.

"What are you implying?! Rigo?! That idiot?! What? You think I  _like_  him?! As if! I'm just concerned that if he kicks the bucket, Yanny will get all upset and then wreak havoc on he rest of us! And if he gets upset,  _you_ end up getting upset because you two are always concerned for each other and consequently end up mirroring each other, causing the madness to multiply exponentially between you two, making Noel's and my life hell in the process!"

"Well, I never said  _that_  - the whole you and Rigo thing (at least out loud) - but sure, you two seem nice together."

"W-Whatever! We go just about as well as you and Yanny."

"Oh no. You and Rigo are cute. Me and Yanny are AHHHHH! You know, constantly trying to murder each other?"

"Oh, you know neither of you really mean it, and maybe it  _did_  start out as a little rivalry between us as little six-year-olds, but I think that now you're just using it as an excuse to deny your feelings, since you two would sooner lose to a Chonchon than ever admit to something like that before Yanny did. Heck, even if he  _did_ , you'd probably still deny it all."

"Are you suggesting I live in denial?"

"Sort of."

"I'm only living in as much denial as you are, Nat."

"I'm not living in denial!"

I shoved her and ran off, laughing.

"Rei, get back here!"

"Hey, Nat!" Rigo called. "Watch this!"

He raised his mace over his head and slammed it down, causing crystal sand to go flying everywhere and causing a shockwave that threw three Gorgonzolas back.

"Ha! Yeah!"

"Rigo! Watch your back!" Noel shouted, but Rigo was already launched forward by a fourth Gorgonzola attacking him from behind.

"Rigo!" Natarle bolted past me and to Rigo while Noel and Yanny dispatched the large gooey monsters.

I moved to follow her, but then my vision began to become blurry. My head didn't necessarily hurt but it blurred and shut down. I couldn't feel anything anymore, and I'm not sure if I continued running or not.

_I saw Yanny taking me out on a hunt. I nearly fell down into the chasm leading to the Black Sands. Yanny caught my hand and held me close. He kissed me_.

_Noel's grandmother smiled to me, pressing something into my palm before her eyes closed. For good_.

_My father was lying in bed, sickly pale. I was beside him, holding his hand. I was crying. His hand went slack. He took his last breaths before my eyes_.

_Natarle now laid sick in bed. Rigo was the one with her. She smiled to him. He kissed her. And that was the last thing she ever knew_.

_Rigo and Noel were arguing. I couldn't hear about what. Rigo turned and ran. He never came back_.

_Yanny held my hand as he spoke to me. Then he let go. He turned away. He left to see Rigo once more_.

_Yeul was in Noel's arms at the Farseer's Monument. She smiled, put her hand to his face, made him a final promise. And then she went limp, Noel's tears falling to her still-smiling face_.

_I fell against the wall in my home, tears falling down my face. I sunk to the floor in despair. I knew it was coming. I was afraid. As I raised my head I opened the Eyes of Etro_.

Yeul. " _The timeline has been warped. I see the end. The pillar crumbles to ash and sand. We will meet again._ "

Yanny. " _I think…death is the real eternal life. That's why I'm not afraid to die for you. Then I can be with my loved ones forever._ "

Natarle. " _You should take the chance to be happy while you can. Every second could be your last._ "

Rigo. " _I do_ not _like her!_ "

Noel. " _I promise, I won't ever say I regret knowing you. Not anymore._ "

Rei. " _And N_ _oel Kreiss? Don't you ever dare forget about me._ "


	3. It Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's rushed. It probably needs a lot of editing.

She was sick.

Noel's grandmother was ill. There was no way to help her other than to make her comfortable in her final moments.

My dad was tending to her day and night. I worried he might get sick too, but I wouldn't tell him to abandon Noel's grandmother while she had limited time. I guess we'll all have our time eventually.

"Perhaps I'd like to see your mother again," He admitted.

"Papa…"

What was there to say?

The world was dying. We were the end of humanity. Susu (what I called my mom because she had a complicated name that I couldn't pronounce when I was little) was gone. My big sister, Hotaru, died getting us away from our village, holding off the monster attack. We'd made it to Paddra, but we were only delaying the inevitable.

Ten years now that I'd been living in Paddra. Ten years that I've been seeing the people around me die, one by one. Ten years that have worn away at my hope, that innocence that I'd once had when I was little.

I walked outside through the crystal sand.

How were we supposed to go forward? The end of the world was coming. There were no more new children being born. The adults were dying off one by one. We weren't going to make it.

"Fang!"

"I'm not in the mood, Yanny."

He looked disappointed. "What's up?"

"We're not gonna make it, are we?"

"Huh?"

"Noel's grandma is sick. The rest of us aren't gonna last long. The village will be wiped out in our lifetime. Who knows if there's anyone else out there? The only reason me and my dad found Paddra was because we'd heard of the seeress."

Yanny stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down sadly. "Maybe."

"Maybe? We're doomed, Yan! We have been since the day the pillar crumbled! If the people back then could build skyscrapers, have amazing technology, build massive cities, then why couldn't they have prevented this?!"

"I don't know. Maybe they didn't expect Cocoon to fall when it did."

"They had five hundred years to prepare for it."

"Not a lot of time, in the long run. People back then lived to be, like, a hundred years old, right?"

I sighed. "I guess I'm just…I'm tired, Yanny. I'm tired of fighting this hopeless fight. What's there even to fight for, anyway? If we're the last of humanity, then it doesn't matter if we become strong. We'll be wiped out eventually, if not from a monster attack, then from old age."

"Well, isn't it our job to, uh…reproduce?"

"Sure, but most mothers die upon childbirth. At best, we could give one or two more lives to make up for two deaths. And who knows how long we'll be able to keep up that trend in this world. Maybe once there was technology that let a woman survive giving birth, or just healthy enough woman to handle things all on their own, but not now. There's nothing we can do."

"Stay positive, Fang."

"What's the point of staying positive? Won't do us any good."

"If you've got time to mope, you've got time to hope."

I kicked the crystal sand as hard as I could, sending a shower of dust ahead of us. "That's what my mom used to say. And then she died from a stupid Malboro!"

Yanny visibly flinched, though not from my actions, but my words. "I…I'm sorry."

"It's not fair, Yanny! Why did the stupid people of the past leave us like this?! Why…why is humanity itself resting on  _our_  shoulders?!"

"They were stupid. They didn't realize how stupid they were."

"Smart civilization, my arse. If they had been so great, we wouldn't be stuck here, drowning in this sea of crystal dust and sorrow!"

"There's no use complaining about it. Might as well save your energy for surviving as long as possible."

"What? To set a new record?"

"To enjoy life while you have it. If we're gonna be the last of civilization, might as well make the most of the time we have left."

He sighed. "Look, maybe you just need a hunt to get this out of your system. However long we have, being all down isn't gonna help anyone."

He grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the village, though it wasn't like I had much left in me to resist.

He took me through the sea of crystal dust that was the world. If there had ever been great civilizations out there in the world, where was the evidence? I wish I could go back, tell them what will happen to the pillar, make all of this go away. Even if this reality never existed, that would be okay.

I stared at the ground in front of me, uninterested in where Yanny was taking me. He was silent the entire way, which was out of character for him. Maybe he was only cheery to block out the sorrow we faced together. That didn't really sound like him, though.

"Rei, watch your step!"

Yanny pulled my wrist, and away from the edge of the bridge over the chasm to the Black Sands. The next thing I knew, I was at his chest, a breeze from the abyss below tickling the hairs on the back of my neck. I'd almost fallen. I wouldn't have been afraid if I had.

"You know something?" He asked, still holding me close. "There are reasons in the world to keep going."

"Like what?" I asked, inhaling his scent.

"Like love."

"Is love enough to save us?"

"That, and a little bit of willpower. I've known you for ten years, Rei. I think you've got the willpower thing down. At least until today, that is."

"I'm out of willpower, Yan. I've managed for too long. I've been sucked dry."

"Well I haven't. And I've got a bit of love left in me, too."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "You? You don't seem the type."

"I know. But I am. What about you?"

"I'll love my papa for as long as I can. But I think he's ready to find my sis and mom soon."

"What about your friends?"

"I'll love them, sure. But I think we all want to see our loved ones again."

"And maybe I just want a little more time with you before then."

Yanny stepped back and then leaned forward to kiss me.

I remembered vague images of what I'd seen all those years ago, and remembered that Yanny had taken me on a hunt to the Black Sands.

Noel's grandmother was sick.

Things were all falling into place.

So what I'd seen  _had_  been visions of the future. But how could I have a vision of the future? I wasn't Yeul, I wasn't a seeress. There wasn't anything special about me. I'd have to ask her when I got the chance.

But if this came true, then that meant everything else I'd seen would come to pass as well.

I was going to lose them all. I couldn't lose them all.

Please don't let me lose them.

Please don't let me lose Yanny.

* * *

"Papa, I'm home!"

"Rei."

My father was sitting in a chair beside Noel's grandmother. When I arrived, he looked up grimly. "She wants to speak with you."

It  _was_  coming to pass. She was going to die here. No, no, no, no, no.

But what was there to be done? Nothing can stop death, not in this world. I knew that first hand.

So I sat down in the chair my father had been in, and he walked off to leave us alone.

"You wanted to see me, ma'am?"

"None of that ma'am nonsense," She said. "I've known you since you were a child. You and your father have taken care of me for all the time you've been with us."

"It's the least we can do with you allowing us to stay with you."

"How could I turn down such a nice pair? You were such a bright-eyed child, seemingly unmarred by the hardships you'd faced at such a young age. But you were old enough to understand, I knew. I saw it in your eyes."

"I'd just lost my sis and Susu - my mama. Papa was all I had left."

"And you still smiled, child. You acted like not a thing was wrong in the world."

She looked to the ceiling with a sigh. "Children shouldn't have to force their smiles like that. At one point in time, children had innocence. They didn't have to worry about survival from the moment they were born, and they could just live life normally. Without fear."

"Why did the world come to be like this?"

"Some say that people took the gifts of the goddess for granted. That the miracles that saved them allowed them time to prepare for the apocalypse, but they thought it was going to be safe forever. They say this is our punishment. For all the peace they lived in, we face the consequences of misery they avoided."

"Do you think we can do anything about it?"

"I'll be honest with you, honey. I'm not so sure."

"What if…what if I told you something…a little crazy?"

"I've seen a lot of crazy throughout my lifetime. At this point, anything you tell me will be nothing compared to reality."

"I…I had this vision…and…and I think…it might be coming true."

She let out a chuckle. "Well, that's far from unnatural. I've seen Yeul, her powers and abilities. That was probably the most normal thing I'd ever heard."

"But I'm not the seeress. Where would I gain the ability to see the future?"

"Miracles?"

I hung my head. "Well, what I saw wasn't much of a miracle."

"They say Yeul must keep her visions to herself to prevent others from facing worse fates. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if any vision of the future was just a suggestion. There aren't any other people left to kill off, no more terrible events that could be punishment for breaking the rules. The world here has ended."

I was surprised by her statement. "So…you're saying I should try and save them? Go against what I saw?"

"I might be. The universe likes to straighten itself out. Maybe you'll buy them a day at most, but it's another day of life for them, with the worst consequence being death, which was already in motion from the day we were born, from the day our grandparents' grandparents' grandparents were born. Do you love them?"

"Yes."

"Then I'd say those few days are worth it. Maybe this is Etro's final gift to humanity. She created the crystal pillar to save humanity, but in the end, even that wasn't enough. Maybe, she gave you one final gift, a few more days to live with your loved ones. At this point, a day is a lot. An hour is a lot. A minute is a lot. Even one more second with those you love would be worth it."

She erupted into a fit of coughs, and I quickly moved to give her some water.

"I lost Noel's parents what must've been an eternity ago. A mother shouldn't have to burry her child, see them die before their very eyes. Even in these times, I should've joined the goddess before my children. I survived giving birth, and I had put my hopes into my daughter doing so as well. But luck only goes so far, I suppose. You've been given a final gift, the last luck that might ever exist in this world. Use it while you can, darling."

"But what if I can't do anything?"

"Then you can die knowing that you tried."

She reached to her chest and pulled out a necklace hidden under her dress. "I've been saving this for a special occasion. This has been passed down for generations. My mama told me it was a gift from the gods, that it would fall into the hands of the person who might be able to save humanity. You can believe her if you want, but I'm giving it to you."

In her hand was a shell, and as she motioned for me to examine it, I opened it to find a gem that seemed to shimmer with more color than I'd ever seen in this dying world. Were there even names for these colors anymore?

"Why me? Why not Noel? I mean, he's your grandson, right?"

"I never said this was passed down through my family alone. My mama got it from her friend's uncle. He got it from his wife. It was passed on to the people who we had faith in. I have faith in you."

"Me? Why me?"

"I saw that look in your eyes as you grew up. Your papa, Noel, all your little friends and everyone in between. There's always been weak hope in their eyes. They've given up, but they haven't fully given up yet. You understand?"

"But…that basically describes me too."

"It didn't. For longer than I'd ever seen, you held something else in you. A knowledge that things would be okay. I began to think that you already  _could_  see the future, long before this talk. Only Yeul had ever had an expression similar to yours, and even hers didn't go as unmarred. You must've seen something good."

"I saw my first vision five years ago. Nothing's ever been good."

"Even before that, hon. Maybe you didn't know it on the surface, but you knew things would be okay."

"But then…why would things suddenly change now?"

"I guess the end is coming. It's time for you to make your own choices. You were given hope, and now you're being given despair. Which one will you chose to believe in?"

"But I don't even  _remember_  being given any hopeful visions."

"We don't understand the goddesses gifts a good deal of the time. I have faith you'll figure it out."

"But…"

"No more of that, child. Start believing in yourself again."

She took her hand and put mine around the necklace she'd given to me. Her grip was weak and shaky, but she forced me to close my hand around it.

"I know you'll do great things. I know you're special. If you can save your friends for even a day, I know you'll be able to do it. If you can save humanity itself, I know you won't give up until you do."

"And if I fail?"

"You won't."

Her grip slackened. Her eyes closed. They tried to stay open a little longer, but eventually, she fell victim to eternal rest.

I removed her necklace and took the shell with the gem into my palm.

"I'll try," I promised.


	4. The Last Four

It was happening all around me.

After Noel's grandmother died, him, me, and Yeul all went to live with Natarle's family.

The adults were all getting sick. I guess the older that we got, the weaker that we got. I saw the nice chocobo breeder fall dead, his chocobo kweh-ing beside him as though it didn't understand why he wasn't getting back up. I saw Araea fighting her illness, insisting that she was getting better and she could power through, but she went on a hunt with her husband and neither ever returned. I saw James from the forge get weaker and weaker, foraging day and night to try and distract himself, assuring us that he was fine.

I stayed with him one night and he grunted, lifting his large forging hammer and bringing it down, but he couldn't lift it again. "I'm just…to frail for this world," He had said.

I had seen it in his eyes. He had given up.

When he passed away, Rigo had taken up the job as the new forge. Once he had wielded a new weapon each week, all having been made by himself. Now, whenever he joined us on hunts, he wielded only one weapon - James's forging hammer. The weapon that had created so many others.

We still tried to smile. We laughed on hunts together that got our blood pumping, the danger the only thing that was able to give us excitement in this world.

Once, we faced a Behemoth and - well, many times we've faced Behemoths, but the most recent case had me smiling every time I thought about it. Noel and I had the advantage of rapid attacks and mobility, Yanny and Rigo had brute strength and hard-hitting attacks, and Natarle had ranged bow-and-arrow attacks. We were a great team that could survive anything, and as we got older, we got stronger. I was almost 17 now, Noel nearly 16, and Yeul's 13th birthday was coming up soon. We were still growing, both with our natural growth and with our extra muscle mass and fighting techniques.

"I got this!" Rigo had called, running up to the Behemoth, but because of his need to be right in front of his enemy to strike (having a short ranged weapon), the monster easily swiped at him before he could do so and sent him flying back.

"You got  _what_  now?" I called.

Rigo grumbled and dug himself out of the crystal sand. It had gotten all over his hair and he would later complain about having crystal dust everywhere - in his shirt, his pants, his shoes, and everywhere that you  _didn't_  want to know about.

Being away from the village on hunts was some of the only solace I had. When we got home, I was reminded constantly that our days were numbered. Natarle's aunt got sick, and my father once again tended to another person who would inevitably die. There just weren't any ways to help except to make their final days more comfortable. We didn't have any plants for medicine, we didn't have much water or any food besides what we could find each day. When Natarle's aunt passed away, the only adults left were my father and Caius, the Guardian of Yeul.

My father tried to hide it, but he was sick. Soon, it wasn't long before he stopped trying to hide it.

"Papa?" I asked one night.

"I'm sorry, Rei. I tried."

I nodded, remembering my vision. "Papa, go to bed. Be comfortable."

He sighed and nodded, standing from his chair and moving to the bed. He was so thin and pale, so weak. I sat next to him, taking his hand and trying not to cry. The moment I cried, I knew that he would be gone.

"Tell Susu I say 'Hi,'" I muttered, my eyes watering.

He smiled. "Asushunamir would be so happy, so proud if she could see you now. She'd be bawling if she could see  _me_  like this, though. And your sister…she was so bright and wonderful. I know you two would've been the best of friends as well as siblings. I wonder what she would've looked like if she had grown up here."

"She would've chewed out Yanny and Rigo whenever they got all sassy. She might've liked Noel. And Yeul. She would've been so protective of Yeul, just like the rest of us. She would've been best friends with Natarle, we'd all complain about the boys together. And she would've always remained hopeful."

"Just like you."

I shook my head. "I'm just trying to fill in for her. I could never  _be_  her though."

"No. You can only be  _you_. And I'm satisfied having you."

"But I want Susu and sis back with us too."

Dad readjusted on his bed. He stared up at the ceiling in deep thought. "Your mother was so perfect. The moment I first met her, I couldn't stop staring. We'd been staring at each other for ages before I finally got the courage to go up and speak to her. Turns out, she was just as nervous about me as I was her. She stuttered and squeaked and stared at me too."

I smiled and started crying at the idea of my parents' first meeting.

"She…she complimented my sword and then…then I started rambling about it. I was so afraid she'd be dissuaded by my constant talking, but…but she somehow wasn't. Then she survived your sister's birth and…and she was  _so_  wonderful that I sometimes forgot that this world was dying. I could look at her and think that the world was full of color and life. And then she was pregnant a  _second_  time with you and I was so worried that I'd…I'd killed her. But she lived. As if I couldn't love her more, she  _lived_. She did it. She gave me you and your sister and we were together for a few years."

He continued rambling on as he got more and more tired. His voice became dry, his breaths became shallow, he closed his eyes as he continued talking. It was only when he fell asleep that I cried again. I felt his pulse as it slowed and disappeared. I was the one to bury him two days later.

* * *

I carved away at the stone, writing my message before putting the tombstone on the grave. The carving of a tombstone with the lack of proper tools was a tiring task, but the effort distracted me, if just for a few seconds, from the pain in my chest.

"It's perfect."

I jumped and saw Yanny behind me with a wreath of beads. He had made a ceremonial necklace, setting it in front of the tombstone.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

He chuckled lightly. "Well, it occurred to me that I never asked you father for…permission."

"It never came up," I agreed. "I didn't mean to  _not_  tell him about us. It just never seemed important. I forgot about it. I guess we can tell him now. He's raised me for nearly thirteen years now. He deserves it. Even if it doesn't really mean much in the long run."

Yanny let out a deep sigh. "Okay, here goes." He held out a small old box. "Mr. Charon, I'd like permission to marry your daughter."

I nearly fell over. " _What?_ "

Yanny sighed and handed over the box to me. "I wanted to ask him sooner, I  _did_. But I just kept putting it off, telling myself ' _I'll do it tomorrow_.' Turns out, that plan doesn't always work."

I opened the small box and found a small necklace of beads, a larger pendant in the middle that signified marriage in our little community. My dad had always worn my mom's as a bracelet. I felt my eyes watering and turned away to wipe the tears away.

"You…you can't just  _do_  that," I sniffled. "You can't just spring that on me while…while I'm all  _emotional_  like this."

"So…that's a  _no?_ "

"It's a  _yes_  you idiot, but you could've chosen a better  _time_."

He chuckled lightly. "Sorry. Guess I realized that our time is limited. Don't have a lot of time left to wait."

I leaned against him as I sniffled, trying to contain my tears and snot. I was so elegant. "He's really gone. They're…it's all disappearing."

He hugged me tightly. "I know, Rei. I know."

* * *

"This is  _wonderful!_  We haven't had a wedding in  _so_  long!"

"It's not gonna be anything big, Natarle. Don't overreact."

"Overreact?  _Me?_  Nooooo!  _Never!_ "

I sighed. "It's not like we can  _really_  do anything fancy. The village doesn't have that many resources."

"Oh, hush. I'm going to make this the best wedding in history!" She saw my expression and seemed to realize that she needed to cool it  _just_  a little bit. "Okay, how about this? You need a reason to smile, we  _all_ do. You finally ended up with Yanny! Took you two long enough. Now you're gonna get married and have a nice little wedding with the rest of us, giving us a reason to celebrate rather than to mourn. Noel and Rigo and probably talking to Yanny right now about this. How do you think boys react to stuff like this?"

I shrugged, imagining Rigo and Noel trying to give Yanny some advice and Yanny ignoring it completely to do his own thing. It was a miracle that the boys got anything done. Heck, I wouldn't have been surprised if Yanny had somehow managed to trick Noel into proposing for him.

"See, there's that smile," Natarle gleamed. "Now, come on. We've gotta find you a fancy outfit. I think we can muster something up."

She dug through our shared closet for the best things that we had. After we had all moved in with Natarle, the girls and the boys had shared a room - minus Yeul, who had her own room despite being the youngest with Caius there as her eternal Guardian always there for being there's sake.

"Ooo! I think  _this_  will go brilliantly with…" She coughed. "With your necklace. And we can make you a diadem! It would be  _beautiful!_  And we can deck you out in ceremonial beads and-" *cough* "-and I can go to the dunes for some untouched crystal sand. We'll make you sparkle like a  _diamond_ , girl!"

I was happy that Natarle was so excited, but something seemed off about her. She was masking the fear, I had always known that. She was hiding the pain of her family being lost, she was hiding the fear of the next person that passed away. And I began to suspect she was hiding even more than that. Her hands were shaking just slightly, her skin looked just a little paler. As she was helping me into the fanciest hunter's outfit we could find, I felt her leaning on my gently for support as though she could barely keep on her feet.

I suddenly surged forward to hug her.

"Rei? Rei, honey, what's wrong?"

"I'm so sorry," I choked.

She held out for only a moment before sighing and wrapping her arms around me to return the hug. "It's okay, little sis. I'll be joining the goddess. I'll tell your dad about your wedding, how beautiful you looked. I'll meet your mom and our sister."

"You were always like a sister to me."

"And you for I. I know I can't be Hotaru, but I hope that I've done a good enough job."

"You're not Hotaru. You're Natarle. And that's all I ever needed you to be."

She gently released me. "Come on, Rei. I can't tell your fam how good you look at the wedding unless we actually get to the wedding part."

I mustered a smile and nodded.

She brushed the hair out of my face in a motherly way. "You should take the chance to be happy while you can. Every second could be your last."

* * *

"I do  _not_  like her!"

"Yes you do," Noel, Yanny, and I all said in unison.

"Why are you all ganging up on me like this?!" Rigo demanded.

"Because  _I_  was man enough to get married, and now it's  _your_  turn," Yanny said.

"I'm not getting married to  _anyone!_ "

"Come on, Rigo, it's kind of obvious," Noel said.

"It's either Natarle or Noel, so make up your mind, Rigo," I demanded.

"What? Why  _me?_ " Noel interjected.

"Because Yeul's a seeress and she's off limits. Come on, there's nothing stopping you right now! Go on! Nat can't be left waiting forever!"

"I  _don't_  like Natarle like that! Now would you all just  _shut_  up and get  _off_  my back!"

There was silence.

"She's right behind me, isn't she?"

Natarle was standing calmly, holding a couple of strips of leather on her arms. "Hey, Rei. I have some leather from a new Behemoth that Caius killed. Check it out, it's made of blue and red hues. They're…they're unique. Yeul said that…she wanted to give you a present but she didn't know what, so Caius…" She looked around at them, all staring at her, and then turned away. "I'll be back at the house."

"Nat…" Rigo began.

"Look, I'll see you later. Rei, come by so I can show you the new materials."

"Sure, sure," I said.

With that, she walked off.

* * *

"Oh, you look  _perfect!_  Yanny won't know what hit him."

"Thanks, Natarle."

"No prob. This is the most fun I've had in  _ages_. Finally, I get to put my weaving skills to the test."

I hesitated. "You know Rigo didn't mean it. He was just saving face with all our taunting."

"It doesn't really matter now, does it?"

"Well, it  _should_. We know you two like each other and we just want you to be happy. You said that I should take every chance to be happy that I can get, that I should savor every second. You should take your own advice. You and Rigo have been dancing around each other for ages now and you  _need_  to get a move on with it, now more than ever."

She sighed. "I get it, Rei. But…what's the point of letting myself be happy for so short a time if I'm going to lose it all so soon? It'll just make me more regretful and sad when I die. I'll be in even more pain than before."

"You'll be in pain from missing out on your chance at ever doing what your heart says. You'll be sad, but a  _good_  kind of sad, you know? You'll be doing what will make you happy, and you'll have nothing to regret, right?"

She shrugged. "I suppose? I…I'm just…scared. I have to make my decision and I have to make it now. Either way, I'm going to face regret."

"Regretting what you haven't done rather than regretting what you have seems worse to me. You've got nothing better to do if you're gonna just sit around moping, so go on and get him, Nat."

She smiled gently. "I get it. Thanks."

* * *

"We should've gotten a new sword for her."

"She loves her swords, you really think that she'd want a new one?"

Rigo thought. "I mean what are you suppose to  _get_  girls on their wedding days?"

Noel shrugged. "I got a wolf so that we could have a proper feast, and I hear Natarle's making a special dessert from Gorgonzola goo."

"Ugh! I feel like such a  _failure~!_ " Rigo whined, putting his hands to his face.

"What if you finally get together with Natarle?"

"Why are you all so adamant about this?"

"Because Rei's doing what none of us thought that we could ever have: getting married. You never know how much time you have left in this world, and you and Natarle  _belong_  together, it's obvious."

Rigo looked up to the tall mountains of crystal dust. "I'll think about it, Noel."

* * *

"What if I stumble on my lines? What am I even suppose to  _say?_ "

"Rei,  _breathe!_ " Natarle urged. "You're gonna do fine. All you have to do is repeat what I say. I'll go slowly, I promise."

"You look great, Rei," Yeul said.

Rei sighed. "Thanks, girls. You look great yourself, Yeul. I couldn't imagine a better flower girl."

"Hey, you coming or running?" Noel called from outside.

"Shut up, Noel," Rei hissed. "I'll be there in a second."

"See you out there," Natarle waved.

She headed out while Yeul added another flower to Rei's hair - one of her favorite flowers that were rare. It was a simple white flower among all of the purple ones that Natarle had gone to extra lengths to make, mimicking the description of flowers that she'd been given.

"I know you'll be fine, Rei," she said. "No matter if you stumble on your words or trip over your dress, he won't love you any less."

I smiled with a chuckled. I knew she was right. No matter how hard I failed, it wouldn't make Yanny suddenly change his mind. If anything, it'd make him love me more. He was like that. He liked to know we were human, that we could laugh. It was almost overwhelming, thinking about this. In the end, nothing much would change. Marriage these days was a title, little more, and I wasn't sure if having children would be a good idea. At most, Yanny would lose his wife in return for a child. At the worst, he would lose his wife with no payback. We were the last humans in existence. But that didn't mean we couldn't enjoy a wedding.

I followed Yeul out of the crumbling building and out to the main square where Natarle had decorated the place for the wedding, laying out some thin hide to make an aisle of sorts. Noel and Rigo stood on either side of Yanny and Natarle. Yanny was fiddling with the bow Natarle had made, and I sighed when I realized he was just as nervous as I was. If he'd been calm and collected, I might've felt inferior to him, and I might have actually run. Caius was acting as a security guard, having cleared the village of monsters.

I barely remember the walk up, just staring at Yanny, asking him with my eyes whether or not we were really doing this. He told me that were, just by smiling back. Natarle told me what I needed to say, then told Yanny to repeat her after that. Then we were to say what we wanted.

"Rei, thank you for always keeping our spirits high. If it weren't for you and our dumb rivalry, I think I would've given up a long time ago - I think all of us would have. You're the best friend I've ever had, and if you'd never come to this village, none of us would be here,  _this_  would've never happened. I don't know how much time we have left, but I promise that I'll be by your side for it all and will try to repay you for all the love you've given me."

"Thank you, Yanny. For being there when I needed you most, for stopping me from giving up just when I'd started to falter. To tell you the truth, that rivalry, this fight for survival, it pushed me even harder to remain positive. Helping the rest of you ended up helping me. We've hated each other before, but in the end, we always had each other's back. I'm glad that I met you, Yanny. Through all the heartache and sorrow, you're my light keeping me afloat."

Natarle nodded, and all of us crossed our hands over our chests and spoke together. "' _Never give up, for the goddess Etro watches always, and helps those who help themselves._ '"

"I proudly declare you married, husband and wife. Okay, you can kiss now."

We laughed at her informal tone, but shrugged and leaned in anyway. Yanny kissed me like he never had before, and I felt him promising over and over that this wasn't the end, that he was always going to be there. I hoped that I was reciprocating the same message, but also one that told him I didn't need him to promise me that. I already knew.

"Food time!" Rigo announced.

We all laughed but agreed as Natarle rushed into one of the houses to bring out the food she'd prepared, acknowledging Noel's contribution of retrieving the ingredients the hard way from monsters. We applauded Noel's improving hunting skills while eating and chatting with more enthusiasm than we'd had in ages. Yeul gave us a tapestry depicting the two of us together at the wedding, and though everyone wasn't in the exact positions, Yeul had done an amazing job for a preemptive guess at what the ceremony would look like.

"I…I sorta got you something," Rigo volunteered.

"Oh, Rigo, you didn't  _have_  to," I said. "I know there's not a lot left in this world, and we're really just glad your here with us."

"I know, but…well, I might as well."

He stood from the table we were all around (except Caius, he was standing guard at the door) and walked over to Natarle. "Rigo, what-?"

He leaned down and kissed her mid-sentence. Noel fell off the bench in surprise; I grabbed Yanny's arm and punched him to ask if he was seeing what I was seeing; Yanny just froze and swatted at my fist that had punched him; and Yeul started clapping and cheering in her soft voice, "Yay! Congratulations!"

Natarle stared at him in shock, and I held my breath watching Rigo's nervous and hopeful expression.

Then, Natarle stood and ran. "I'm sorry, I can't…"

She hurried past Caius at the door, leaving Rigo heartbroken.

* * *

"Natarle. Natarle!"

She stopped at the edge of town, knowing that she couldn't go any further without being armed, and it wasn't recommended to go out of the village alone anyway. When I caught up to her, I heard her sobbing and quickly moved to hug her.

"I can't do it, Rei, I  _can't!_ "

"Shh, breathe Nat."

It took many more minutes before she was able to regain control of herself. I didn't want to ask her, I didn't want to push her, but I could tell that she wanted an excuse to explain, that she needed to explain to  _someone_  or else she'd never forgive herself.

" _Why_ , Nat?"

"I can't do it. I can't do it to him…"

She broke out into a fit of coughs, and I eased her to the crystal sand below us so that she could sit down. She doubled over, her hand over her mouth, and I finally realized what she meant.

"Your sickness…"

She pulled her hand away to reveal blood as she wheezed and tried to steady her breathing again. "I can't do it…"

"Oh, Natarle…" I wrapped my arms around her tightly. "You don't wanna miss him, you don't want him to miss you."

"I don't want to say goodbye…"

She didn't want to have something to miss when she died. She thought she was prepared for the end, she had her friends and she was satisfied with their lives to the point that she was okay with leaving. She was going to die happy.

But if she allowed herself to love Rigo, especially so close to her death, then that would give her something that she wasn't okay with leaving behind. It would leave Rigo heartbroken and angry, and she didn't want that. She didn't want to be responsible for all that misery.

"I wish it'd never happened," she sobbed.

"What? The kiss or the love itself?"

"Everything!"

I didn't respond, simply hugging her tighter.

"I'm sorry, Rei," Natarle sobbed. "I ruined your wedding day."

"I'm the one who's sorry, Nat."

She sniffled. "Why? You have nothing to be sorry about. It's not your fault the world is like this."

I couldn't help but wonder. This power that I had, those visions that I saw, maybe I was given them for a reason. What if I could  _use_  this knowledge? The law of the Farseers said that the seeress couldn't interfere with her visions because it could risk thousands of lives, warp the timeline as it tried to fix the distortion. But there weren't thousands of people left. There was only us, me, Nat, Rigo, Yanny, Noel, Yeul, and Caius. We were all that was left. This was my family. What did I have left to lose if things were destroyed?

Maybe I could figure out how to fix this. Maybe I could learn to harness this power. And maybe I could save the human race.

* * *

"Rigo!"

"I don't wanna hear it!" he spat.

Yanny and Noel exchanged worried glances.

Yanny pushed Noel forward. "Go on. You're better at this stuff than I am."

Noel rolled his eyes. "Always making me do the dirty work…"

Noel sighed and walked over to Rigo's bed, sitting beside him as he laid facing the wall.

"Rigo, I'm sorry. We didn't know she'd act that way."

"After all of your pushing and prodding, telling me that I should go for it, that I didn't have a lot of time left," Rigo hissed. "All of it, getting my hopes up, making me think I actually had a chance…"

"Look, Rigo…you've always been impulsive, diving head-first into trouble. I've never seen you hold back, I've never seen you think too hard about something before doing it so long as you believed it was the right thing to do. You've saved our lives with that lack of hesitation. I owe you more than I can ever repay. Nat was the only thing that made you slow down and think."

"And look where it got me."

"She  _matters_  to you, Rigo. You can't give up on her like that."

"She made her position on the matter clear."

The anger from Rigo's voice had vanished, leaving only his sorrow. Noel stared at the floor, caked with crystal sand from outside. With all this misery and death in the world, the only thing they had left was each other. A thought occurred to Noel, and suddenly everything seemed to make sense.

"You don't know, do you? About Nat?"

Rigo hesitated. "What about her?"

"She got that sickness from her aunt. She…she doesn't have a lot of time left. She must've done what she did…because she didn't want to get your hopes up only for her to die."

Rigo sat up, turning to face Noel. "She's been sick? For how long?!"

Noel shook his head. "I don't know. But she's been getting weaker for a while now. I'm surprised you didn't notice."

Rigo didn't say anything. He simply jumped off his bed, grabbed his forging hammer, and sprinted out the door, pushing past Yanny, and running in the direction Natarle had run. He ran to Natarle without a plan on what he was going to say, what he was going to do, what was going to happen afterwards. He didn't think about the consequences, he didn't think about the possibility of failure. He just ran to her because he didn't want to let her go - because he wasn't going to waste another second hesitating because of her.

" _There's_  the Rigo I know," Noel muttered.

* * *

"We should head back," Natarle announced.

"Are you sure?" I asked worriedly.

"The pain's gone down. Better to start moving before it flares up again."

I nodded, working to help Natarle to her feet, but that's when the tremors started.

"Do you feel that?" I asked.

Natarle held still, and a moment later, she raised her head, her eyes wide in panic. "Adamantoise."

" _This_  close to the village?!"

"Just go, Rei. Go!"

We hobbled forward, feeling the steps of the large creature growing closer and closer, causing the tremors to grow stronger and stronger.

"Natarle!"

"Rigo! Go back! Go-!"

She broke into a fit of coughing from her shouting. He would've ignored her warning anyway, but when he saw her in pain, he sprinted forward even faster.

"Natarle, are you okay?"

She tried to shake him away and point towards the village, but she fell forward into his arms.

"It's an Adamantoise, Rigo!" I informed him. "We need to go, now!"

"Even if we make it to the village, it'll be  _crushed!_ "

"Not if it threatens Yeul. If it threatens Yeul's life and she isn't destined to die, Caius can stop it."

Rigo looked up and in the distance, he could see the creature stomping their way over the crystal sand. "Rei, take Natarle and go."

" _What?!_  No! No, we're not leaving you!"

He drew the forging hammer from his back, having grabbed it in preparation for going outside the village. At least he was smart about that, unlike me or Nat.

"I'll hold it off so you can get Nat to the village. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you! Now go! She needs to get back there!"

"No, Rei…" Natarle begged, her voice raspy and barely coming out. "Don't…don't leave…"

I looked to Rigo, the Adamantoise, and to the weakened Natarle. I wanted to scream in frustration. I had seen Natarle dying in a bed with Rigo at her side. That meant that if I brought her back to the village, she was sure to die. But it gave me a chance to stop Rigo from leaving, from arguing with Noel, from…No. Even if I saved Rigo, he wouldn't want to go on without Natarle. But if we all stayed here, we'd all surely die anyway.

I grabbed Natarle and pulled her forward, and she had too little strength left to properly protest. We hurried to the village as fast as we could, hearing Rigo's battle cry behind us. Natarle started to sob in my arms, but I pushed forward, passing the buildings that came together to create a sort of funnel at the end of the village.

"He won't…he won't come back…to us," Natarle sobbed. "Please, Rei…go back for him!  _Please!_ "

"Rei! Nat!"

Yanny and Noel came running up with Yeul hurrying behind them and Caius following her.

"Where's Rigo?" Yanny demanded. "We felt the tremors. Is it-?"

"Adamantoise," I confirmed.

"Go back for him!" Natarle screamed, her voice raspy and cracking.

Noel grabbed his swords off his back. "Come on! The idiot's gonna get himself killed!"

Yanny ran over to his house, grabbing his sword from the doorway, and ran after Noel out to the edge of the village.

"Yeul, can you look after her?"

Yeul nodded firmly. "Go. I'll keep her safe."

I nodded, hurrying to my house and grabbing my swords. Luckily Natarle was an expert seamstress, and so all of the clothes that she had made for the wedding were both stylish and mobile - I could fight completely fine in the outfit. I hurried after Noel and Yanny, who were just ahead of me as we raced to Rigo's rescue.

* * *

I sighed as I treated Rigo's wounds. Luckily he didn't seem to have a concussion.

Rigo hadn't died from the Adamantoise, we had made sure of that, but the Adamantoise hadn't fallen either. We had barely managed to change its course and save Rigo, but he had taken a hit or tow and we'd found him knocked out in the crystal sand.

"That was foolish of you, Rigo," I told him as he slept. "But at least you're still with us."

The same could barely be said for Natarle. Yeul had done all she could, but Natarle was dying and there was nothing we could do but make the rest of her stay as comfortable as possible.

When Rigo woke, I pointed him towards Natarle's bed where she was sleeping, and prepared myself for the coming sorrow.

* * *

"I'm sorry…Rigo…" Natarle wheezed.

"Don't apologize. You had your reasons."

"That didn't…make it ri…right."

"Shh. Save your strength. What's done is done, and I forgive you. As long as you know…no matter what, no matter how you reacted, I just wanted you to know how I feel. Maybe it was obvious to the others, maybe it was obvious to  _you_ , but…I just needed to say it. I love you and there's nothing you can do about it. No matter how much it's going to hurt me, no matter how much it's going to hurt you, I want it out there."

Her eyes watered and she reached out to take his hand. He gripped hers tightly, even if her own grip was weak. She was extremely pale and weak, but she was smiling.

"Let me do it right this time," she said.

"Do what?"

"Respond to your confession."

He nodded and leaned down to be face to face with her, up close. He gave her a weak smile before he kissed her. Her lips were chapped, but he didn't care much. He felt her gently kissing him back, and kissed her properly - better than his first, sloppy and rushed attempt. When he pulled back, he sat up and opened his eyes. He expected to see her gentle smile, he wanted to hear what he knew she wanted to say. He saw the smile. He never got to hear her words.

"Nat?"

He shook her shoulder.

"Natarle?"

He didn't want to, but he moved his fingers to her neck and tried to feel for a pulse. He moved his fingers around, trying to locate a pulse frantically. Finally, knowing that he might just be bad at seeking out the vague location of a pulse, he put his finger to her nose to feel for her breathing. He still couldn't find anything.

"No. No…no, you still haven't told me, Nat. Nat!  _Natarle!_ "

She didn't respond. She had done what she had dreaded for so long. She had never told him, he never heard the words she had wanted to say but was afraid to. When she had finally been willing to speak, that's when her words had failed her. Her final chance was lost, there would be no more. In the end, it had been her fear and hesitation that had caused the very scenario she had dreaded.

It was all over.

She was gone, and Rigo had never heard her words.

* * *

"Rigo, you can't go after that thing alone! You're gonna get yourself  _killed!_  You think  _that's_  what Natarle would want from you?!"

"Get out of my way, Noel! I mean it!"

"No! You are  _not_  going to face that Adamantoise alone! We barely managed to drive it off all together last time, and Rei and Yanny are still asleep! Even if we woke them up, we can  _fend off_  those things, we can't  _defeat_  them. So you're  _not_  going alone!"

I didn't want to hear what I heard, but I did. The argument.

"Rigo…maybe you shouldn't go," I called, coming out from the building Yanny and I shared. "You're strong, but…that thing's pretty big."

"Where's this coming from, Rei? You're supposed to  _support_  me! You're always behind me with stuff like this. We've  _always_  run head first into danger  _together!_ "

"I know, but Rigo…! You…what if you actually die?"

"I won't."

"Well how would  _you_  know?! You're always so careless and it was fine when we were children but we're not children anymore!"

Rigo scoffed. "Marriage has made you soft."

I shook my head. "It wasn't marriage. It was Natarle."

His reaction was tiny, but it was there.

"Even when facing her death, her greatest concern was you. She wanted to make sure that you didn't do anything stupid once she died, and so she didn't want to give you any false hope. She wanted to die like everyone else in the village, she wanted us to not mourn her and move on and  _live_. She knew that you'd go and get yourself killed out of grief, so I'm saying right now that I'm not going to  _let_  you!"

Rigo glared, but Noel crossed his arms firmly. "Then that's that. You're  _not_  going to fight and die from an Adamantoise."

"Screw you, Noel," he muttered before heading back to his house.

Once Rigo went inside, Noel let out a sigh of relief. For the second youngest of us, he was pretty mature. Besides the special case of Yeul, he was the last child to have been born probably in the entire world. This village was all that was left of the entire world, and every time someone died, he felt their hopes weighing him down. Now that Natarle was gone, he must've felt that all the people who had put their hopes in  _her_ had passed the burden down to him.

"Thanks for that," he said with his warming smile.

I nodded. "I'll keep an eye on him. I have a feeling he'd slip right under your radar and go anyway."

"Careful. Yanny will get jealous at this rate."

I snickered. "Well tell him that we're all moving to one house. I don't like living without you guys. We don't have Natarle, but that doesn't mean we're not still a family."

Noel nodded. "I'll get him up."

He hurried off, and I made my way after Rigo. He was still in the house, luckily, sulking in his defeat. But he was alive. I'd saved him. Now to Yanny, but that was already half solved since a part of the reason he left was that he was mourning Rigo and Natarle together. I couldn't save Natarle, but I  _had_  to save the boys. For her sake.

I walked into the hut, but suddenly I felt a familiar sting in my head as my vision became blurry. I lost all feeling to my body, but I focused and made sure that I stayed standing up.

_A monster, enormous, loud and roaring. It only had one arm, it broke through a rift but only half its torso would fit. It roared and swiped it large hand._

_"You can't beat it!"_

_"Then what are we supposed to do?" Rigo demanded. "Leave? Where else can we go? What if it can teleport and follow us? What then?!"_

_"We can't leave our home," Yanny said more gently. He gently cupped my face. "Don't worry, love. We can do it, but we can't win without your help. So will you be by our side?"_

_When the monster died, it opened a rift that sucked them in. I was left alone._

_The scene shifted to Yeul collapsed in Noel's arms._

" _It's strange. I knew all along this day was coming. But…I'm still not ready…to say good-bye. I wish we could stay together. I'll miss you, Noel._ "

" _You don't have to cry. We_ will _meet again._ "

 _Each time a seeress sees a vision of the future, she loses a piece of her life. She dies while she is still young. That is the price to be paid…for Etro's gift_.

I had seen a few visions ever since my first one, and I'd learned a little about how they worked. The visions only lasted about a split second in the real world, no matter how much or how little I saw, but they started to become more and more painful and draining each time. Where the first one I didn't feel any pain at all, I started to feel a slight prick, like a needle in my brain, and then once it was over I felt like I had just sprinted for a few seconds - winded, but not in too much pain. Then it got worse each time. The needles, the fatigue afterwards.

This time, when I came out of it, I felt like I'd been hit with a mental battering ram and my limbs felt like jelly. Though I'd managed to stay standing, I quickly collapsed from the fatigue and saw spots in my eyes to show I was about to pass out.

No. No, I couldn't let them both die.

Outside, there was a loud roar and a crashing. The wind howled, crystal dust went flying. It was already here.

* * *

"Rei."

I gasped as I sat up in bed to find Noel sitting above me.

"Noel? What happened? How did-?"

He took my shoulder to try and hold me in place. "Rei, listen to me. You have to stay calm."

I didn't hear Noel's words as he explained what happened. I didn't  _want_  to hear them. I didn't want to believe them.

No…

It happened so fast. I was out of time. They couldn't be gone just like that, they  _couldn't_  be! Yanny…

"Yanny!"

I had run out into the village square and shouted his name. I felt a slight discomforting hum where the rift had opened, where the monster had appeared, and where it had taken my friend and my husband. It had taken them because I had tried to save them. Noel didn't try to stop me as I tried to find him, as I ran around screaming his name in a futile attempt to bring him back.

"Yanny!  _Yanny!_ "

He didn't say anything as he walked over to where I'd collapsed sobbing. He simply held me tightly as I begged to whatever higher power thought that this was what the human race deserved. It wasn't what Rigo deserved. It wasn't what Natarle deserved. It wasn't what James or Araea or Noel's grandmother or my father and mother and sister deserved.

It wasn't what Yanny deserved.

"I love you…please come back to me,  _please_ …give him back!  _Give him back_ , you hear me?!"

Goodbyes in this world aren't always dramatic and dragged out and loving. For me, I said goodbye to Yanny by getting knocked out and never even seeing his last moments. That's how unfair this world was, that's how useless I was.

That's how I became one of the last four people in existence.

I'm Rei Fang of the village of Paddra, and this is how the end of my story began.


End file.
